Oscar Stew

Brinley and her alter ego, Fancy Nancy, went to a birthday party last weekend. It was super posh tea party at Sweet Teas. Needless to say, it was every little girls dream.

We thought using brown butcher paper was such a great idea to wrap presents, but how could this little girl walk into an exquisite tea party with a boring brown present? gasp! Scrapbook supplies to the rescue…it may not be overly pink and girly, but it was Brinley-approved and off she went.

After some quick craft projects the girls launched into full primp mode. Make-up, nails, perfume. The works.

It’s too bad I ruined this shot by being in it, the pushy helicoptering mamarazzi that I am.

Her makeover wouldn’t be complete without some body glitter for some extra oomph. Ooh la la!

During a quick etiquette lesson Brinley tired of the mamarazzi following her around. I can’t quit though, the tabloid says my job is on the line! 

The girls played the pass the present game. Kinda like hot potato but the idea was to be the one holding the present when the music stopped. Brinley became more and more hesitant to pass the present along because the music stopped every time just as she let go.

After the games, it was time to accessorize. Hats, necklaces, gloves, earrings, bracelets and boas were all readily available.

Maybe Brinley’s alter ego isn’t Fancy Nancy, it’s Feisty Nancy! Oh, the attitude! oy vey.

After a group picture, it was finally time to eat! They started out with “tea” which was pink hot chocolate. The girls got to embellish their drinks with mini marshmallows…look at the concentration it takes to pinch that little bugger and drop it ever so delicately into her cocoa.

Brinley liked to dilute her cocoa with milk. I think it had less to do with taste and more to do with fun.

Mmmm…second course – scones! With devonshire cream and jam.

Which, of course she ate like a delicate lady. Brinley will always be Brinley!

Wash it all down with a goblet of something cool and refreshing. Does anyone have a fiddle? Make that lady with the camera fiddle for me. Amuse me!

A lavish day in the life of the rich and the elegant.

Drew’s birthday was last Monday. It’s hard to believe that 10 years from now Drew will be terrorizing the streets in his hovercar…

The birthday festivities started the day before as we wrapped presents to add to the anticipation (and self dicipline!). Why use fancy yet meaningless wrapping paper when you can outsource the decorating to the temp agency? The kids don’t have to know that this is one of the ways we pinch our pennies. Would they care? Nah.

Maybe it was just a thinly disguised opportunity to cop a feel? And, there’s nothing like writing yourself a little birthday message…

While Drew was at school Brinley wrapped her secret gift for Drew. It was temperature sensitive, and needed to be kept under tight surveillance.

True to tradition, the birthday fairy came and trashed, er…decorated Drew’s room.

We didn’t even have to ask Drew to pretend how he felt that morning. He did it all over again because he wanted to!

Drew requested pizza for his birthday dinner. It was a momentous occasion for our family…8 months in the making. Rowan can finally handle dairy! Free at last!

After Drew was done decorating pizza he informed his agent that he was ready to take calls from all his fans. By the way, that isn’t pizza sauce on his knuckles. Drew hasn’t been cage-fighting either. He’s just suffering from the driest winter in Colorado in the last 100 years!  

Drew’s cake was inspired by Family Fun magazine. You didn’t think we thought this up all on our own, did you?

Everything appears to be on the up and up. Drew, go ahead and make a wish!

And yeah, if those sparkler candles re-light, just keep on wishing!

Hey Drew, I’m slobbering all over this one, so you should unwrap it before it’s soggy slop…

Thanks Rowan! Now all my secret treasures will remain secret! This safe even comes with an alarm, so even Rowan’s metal-melting slobber won’t go undetected.

Grandma & Grandpa J sent gifts that entertain no matter the weather.

Hmmm, sunglasses from a Dilly Bar box? They are pretty cool…

Drew appears to have been fooled. But for how long? Only Brinley knows…

So what ‘s in the big green bag? I dunno, it says “rage” on it, I hope Drew doesn’t have a fit!

He was doing wheelies in the kitchen on his second pass!

Brinley’s mystery gift has finally been revealed…what kind of shoes need to be frozen? Dilly Bars! What the?!

As an artist, Drew uses a lot of paper. Construction paper gets expensive, and I’m tired of watching the computer paper supply dwindle. So the best gift? A roll of paper 36 feet long! Drew can also run Concourse B in Denver all by himself, courtesy of Grandpa & Grandma F.

Even Edgar got in on the gift-giving, with a gift that keeps on giving…back to himself! You follow? Edgar has high guinea-garden expectations. Better get digging Drew!

No, we didn’t ban you from the blog for a week. We had to upgrade our WordPress software and it didn’t go well. Ryan tried to fix it, and that just made it worse. Bummer of a curse, dude. For a few days we wallowed in self pity thinking all was lost, and mourned the loss of our blog. Fortunately we were able to get some expert help from Susan, Ryan’s high school friend, Oscarstew subscriber, and WordPress guru! She swooped in this afternoon, helped us grease the gears and now we’re full steam ahead! We also talked, made pizza, talked some more, laughed, made ice-cream and talked until there was nothing left to say. We can’t thank you enough Suz for fixing our blog, and entertaining us all day! Let’s do it again soon, minus the whole broken blog thing.

So what’d we do all week? We had plenty to do, even though most of us were sick. Drew turned 6, Rowan hit 9 months, Brinley…I mean “Fancy Nancy” attended an exquisite tea party down south, we enjoyed a few days off of school, parent teacher conferences, taxes (oh yes, we enjoyed doing our taxes this year…cha-CHING!), and let’s not forget the beautiful weather which allowed for much outdoor goodness. It was a nice break from the internet, and the old ball and chain, I mean blog. You’ll be reading about our adventures soon enough. But if you’re only gonna spend five dollars…

Wouldn’t you rather get more meat?! We scored 2 free sandwiches at Quizno’s during their Million Sub Giveaway. The kids? Well, we packed them a lunch and they weren’t too thrilled about it. Their life is so hard. mmmm…tasty!